Functional structure of ant and termite assemblages in old growth forest, logged forest and oil palm plantation in Malaysian Borneo

Sarah H Luke,Tom M Fayle,Edgar C Turner,Paul Eggleton,Richard G Davies

doi:10.1007/s10531-014-0750-2

Abstract

Forested tropical landscapes around the world are being extensively logged and converted to agriculture, with serious consequences for biodiversity and potentially ecosystem functioning. Here we investigate associations between habitat disturbance and functional diversity of ants and termites—two numerically dominant and functionally important taxa in tropical rain forests that perform key roles in predation, decomposition, nutrient cycling and seed dispersal. We compared ant and termite occurrence and composition within standardised volumes of soil and dead wood in old growth forest, logged forest and oil palm plantation in Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. Termites occurred substantially less frequently in converted habitats than in old growth forest, whereas ant occurrences were highest in logged forest and lowest in old growth forest. All termite feeding groups had low occurrence in disturbed habitats, with soil feeders occurring even less frequently than wood feeders. Ant functional groups showed more variable associations, with some opportunist and behaviourally dominant groups being more abundant in degraded habitats. The importance of ants and termites in tropical ecosystems and such differing patterns of assemblage variation suggest that ecosystem functioning may be significantly altered in converted habitats.

Highlights

SE Asia contains many threatened biodiversity ‘hotspots’ (e.g. Myers et al 2000; Koh 2008), with loss of up to three quarters of the original forest projected by 2100 (Sodhi et al 2004)
Global demands for timber and palm oil (e.g. Fitzherbert et al 2008, Danielsen et al 2009, Sodhi et al 2009) mean that increasing areas of habitat are being converted—nearly 80 % of Malaysian Borneo was affected by logging and clearing operations between 1990 and 2009 (Bryan et al 2013), with areas typically following a succession from old growth to logged forest, through to oil palm plantation (McMorrow and Talip 2001; Koh and Wilcove 2008; Bryan et al 2013)
Old growth forest survey points at Maliau were in forest that has never been logged commercially, half of the survey points were in forest that has been lightly logged once

Summary

Introduction

SE Asia contains many threatened biodiversity ‘hotspots’ (e.g. Myers et al 2000; Koh 2008), with loss of up to three quarters of the original forest projected by 2100 (Sodhi et al 2004). A review of bird responses to tropical forest disturbance (Gray et al 2007) found significant declines in richness and abundance of insectivores, omnivores and frugivores, increases in granivores. A review of tropical forest dung beetle communities showed similar diversity declines with increasing habitat disturbance, along with a reduction in the number of forest species (Nichols et al 2007). A range of taxa including birds (Peh et al 2006; Koh and Wilcove 2008), butterflies (Koh and Wilcove 2008) and dung beetles (Edwards et al 2013; Gray et al 2014) show substantial losses of biodiversity when forest is converted to oil palm plantation (see review by Fitzherbert et al 2008). The loss of functionally important species, can have significant impacts on ecosystem functioning (Hooper et al 2005)

Methods

Results

Conclusion